Garden

[gardenman]

I'm seeing lots of both bees and butterflies here so far. I live in a neighborhood where there's not much lawn maintenance done other than mowing. A lot of lawn care companies automatically treat lawns with pesticides whether there's a problem or not and that kills lots of good stuff along with a bit of the bad. The crop dusters haven't been out and about this year either. Most of the local farms have switched over to cattle rather than crops and there's less need for crop dusters that can kill tens of thousands of insects in one pass. It's a hard world out there for the good bugs.

[MalteseMomma]

I am devastated by what has been done to our Meadowlands here in NJ   

[mousiegirl]

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@goldensrbest wrote:

I have only seen a few, 2 yrs .ago i had so many,all types,sizes, last year not nearly as many ,this year very few.

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@goldensrbest   I mentioned the same in my thread about not seeing many bees.  I saw one butterfly the other day, and once in a while I see one, but with all of the milkweed, butterfly bushes, and other flowering plants, they should be bountiful.

I havn't seen many bees either, though I notice that quite a few daylilies have been pollinated, so guess the few bees I see are working very diligently.

[SeaGal]

I found this short article 'Spreading Milkweed Not Myths' because I was curious if milkweed was poisonus too, it covers a few questions here. 

www.medium.com/usfws/spreading-milkweed-not-myths-5df8c480912d

I havent seen many butterflies up here in the PNW either.

Our summers doesnt really start here until about now, after the 4th of July.

[claros]

Just saw the first Monarch this morning.

[Sooner]

The Monarchs will come through here in late September on their way back to Mexico.

[PA Mom-mom]

@goldensrbest  We have had a fair amount of Eastern Black Swallowtail and maybe one Yellow Swallowtail. Yes, the Cabbage butterflies have been especially early this year I  think. 60 years ago we had such a variety, but today not so much. However, I'm hopeful. We see bird species returning and more species showing up lately. People are beginning to figure out more ways of luring more butterflies and birds to their back yards.